MLF Dog Sports

02/06/2025

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FOR ANYONE NEEDING MORE ADVICE ON THIS, today our breed expert Carol Price revisits…

MISDIRECTED CHASE BEHAVIOUR IN THE BORDER COLLIE

In my books and on this page I always try to better explain what 'working instinct' really is in the Border collie; namely, a stronger and more genetically enhanced desire to eye, stalk, chase and herd or otherwise control moving things. And when these skills are in harmony with the purpose they were designed for – i.e. managing livestock – it is a truly beautiful thing to see, as viewers of our Cathy Cassie’s sheepdog videos on this page will know.

However, what some owners won't always realise is that this ‘working instinct’ - if not compulsion – is part and parcel of the dog and their whole inner wiring. So it will not be exclusively reserved for livestock. It may be directed at absolutely anything that moves. Thus it is the INSTINCT in the dog to chase moving things that is the most critical thing to understand and consider. Rather than the more individual TARGET the dog chooses to direct it upon. Which, in the absence of aforementioned livestock, can become anything from traffic, trains, birds and cyclists or runners to leaves, water or shadows.

TARGETING AND CONTROLLING THE INSTINCT
In a working environment, a shepherd will not only introduce a dog to sheep when they are still very young, to ensure they become the chosen moving target for them to focus upon, but they will also put in the necessary training required to better control the dog's inner instincts and movements around the sheep. Including the speed and direction at which they approach them, stopping them or dropping them in a 'down' to the ground when necessary, or calling them off the sheep and back to them when required.

LOSING CONTROL OF THE CHASE INSTINCT
What can so often go wrong with pet collies is that the instincts and drives in the dog are less well targeted or controlled, from the off. Sometimes only because they are less well understood. But this is the reason why ‘fixation, chase and herd’ behaviour in the dog can then so easily switch on to alternative – and usually less desirable - moving targets instead. This behaviour can then become ever more addictive and compulsive in the dog, and thus much harder for an owner to stop.

Very often I have come across owners of dogs like these who have been told by this trainer or that to do ‘everything they can to discourage chase behaviour in them’ by never allowing them to chase balls etc. But the collie brain doesn’t quite work like that. These dogs do not just stop wanting to chase things because you have taken away one thing they previously chased. They will just try to find something else to chase instead. For some dogs, with a particularly higher chase drive, it really is like an itch they constantly want to scratch. Dogs who are never allowed some outlet for their inborn instincts can also become very frustrated or stressed.

CONTROL TRAINING
So once again the key is, accept this instinct exists in your dog. Chasing is not something collies do to be ‘bad’ or because they want to defy you or give you a hard time. It is more of a natural compulsion they can struggle to resist.

Having accepted this, next, consider, what are you going to target this instinct upon in your dog, it you haven’t got livestock? And second, how are you going to better control it in them?

As I have outlined many times in my books and features, I choose a particular toy for my dogs to more exclusively fixate on, and which they are only allowed access to, when out, after showing me some more preferred behaviours first – i.e. focus (‘watch me’) ‘down’, ‘wait’. Over time, and with the right training, you want to get to the point where the dog will not only focus on your chosen ‘working’ target toy, and ignore any other possible chase targets around them, but you can also totally control your dog’s movements around the toy, or call them to you, and away from the toy (‘recall’) whenever you want.

Only through work like this will you gain ever better control of their chase drives.

From these basic starter exercises I then move on to even greater control training. Like 'DOWN ON THE MOVE', where you drop your dog into a down when they are running towards a chase object. And also the 'MID-CHASE RECALL', where you not only drop your dog into a down as they are running towards something, but then immediately recall the dog back to you. All this work not only helps you get ever better control of your dog’s behaviour and inner drives, but also helps you build an ever stronger working bond, or partnership, with them.

THE GOLDEN SECOND
Another thing that is so vital, when dealing with chase behaviour in your dog, is simple timing. And knowing how to better abort or redirect an action in them when it is still just a thought in their head. Too often owners may miss that 'golden second', just before a dog is about to chase something, and they are still able to stop them with an appropriately trained command – like ‘leave it!’ watch me!’. ‘down!’, ‘wait!’ - if they only intervened a bit faster.

Learning how to think at the speed of a Border collie is a challenge all of us owners face, and something we all have to keep working on over time. Accept that sometimes you will not be fast enough to stop them doing something. But most of the time, and especially with greater practice, you will – and that is still an achievement.

So basically we can see that by replicating the way a shepherd would work with a sheepdog - i.e. making sure the most appropriate moving target was picked for a dog early on, and then getting in place all the right training to control the dog's movements round this - we have the best chance of controlling our own collie's chase drives, too. It is also possible to retrain a collie off one moving but less appropriate target – like cyclists for instance – and on to another more legitimate one, over which you have far more control, like a ball. But it takes persistence.

Meanwhile, anyone who wants to know far more about the kind of control, focus and anti-chase training I have outlined for collies in this feature will find it covered in the SECOND book in my BORDER COLLIES: A BREED APART trilogy (ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING), which also further explains how you can redirect a dog off a 'wrong' chase target, and on to a more suitable one. And a more comprehensive insight into ‘working instinct’ and other genetic behaviours in collies appears in BOOK ONE - SECRETS OF THE WORKING MIND.
All text ©Carol Price 2025
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/?s=carol+price In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://4mymerles.com/collections/books In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html

02/04/2025

Congratulations to everyone at MLF DogSports who is training and showing their dogs! Some special announcements from the following students:
Nicole and Trout: Rally Intermediate title (1st place), Advanced Rally title and ATT title!
Carole and Kinzie: Intermediate and Advanced Rally titles (two 1sts and a 2nd), BCAT title, and ATT title!!
Valerie and Dash: Rally Novice title (two 2nds) and two Beginner Novice legs (both 1st places)!!
Finally, congratulations to Kate and her variety of dogs earning titles in everything! Great job!!!🥰

11/21/2024

🙌🏻 This 🙌🏻

03/26/2024

The premiums for the AKC Fetch tests to be held on April 7th and May 5th are on the website: www.bordercollieclubaz.com
We have had great turn outs for our first two tests with lots of happy handlers and dogs! We are looking forward to seeing our first Advanced and Retriever titled dogs at the upcoming tests. Plus, there is still time to earn a Novice or Intermediate title. Hope to see you on April 7th and May 5th at Iron Spoon Ranch, Laveen, AZ.
If you have missed the great photos of these events, check out Linda's photos at www.lindatunickphotography.com in the BCCAZ category.

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03/06/2024

Are you ready to earn your first AKC Fetch title? Or a title at the Intermediate level? This Sunday, March 10, BCCAZ will hold our second Fetch test. Check out the website for the premium with more information: www.bordercollieclubaz.com on the Calendar/Events page. Lots of fun and happy smiles!

02/24/2024

It was a very busy week at MLF Dog Sports with great handlers training their super dogs!
There were 10 AKC S.T.A.R. puppies, 24 AKC Canine Good Citizens (CGC), and 15 AKC Community Canines (CGCA) certificates/titles awarded during the classes this week.
A new session begins on February 26th. A well trained dog is so much fun to live with and enjoy!! www.mlfdogsports.com

02/21/2024

FOR THE BENEFIT of anyone who may have previously missed it, today we are repeating our breed expert Carol Price's feature on working instinct in the BC

UNDERSTANDING ‘WORKING’ INSTINCT AND
IMPULSE IN THE BORDER COLLIE

Some of you watching our sheepdog videos on this page – and especially those newer to the breed – may wonder what ‘working instinct’ really is in the Border collie. As well as why it exists, or how you can better control it in your own dog. So I hope this feature will help answer these questions for you.

When we talk about 'working instinct' in collies, what we really mean is a set sequence of behaviours and actions - namely eyeing, stalking, chasing and herding - that the dog feels compelled to engage in, and repeat over and over again, once they have locked on to a chosen moving target. These behaviours, in turn, originate from the wolf's natural pattern of hunting, but have been genetically adapted and enhanced in Border collies, for generations, to make them more responsive to human commands and control. And also the best livestock working dogs that have ever lived.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR OWN DOG’S INSTINCTS
If your collie won’t be working livestock, then the two things that will still be of most significance to any owner are how strong their dog's working instinct happens to be - as this can vary greatly from dog to dog - and what they choose to direct this instinct upon, in the absence of any livestock to work with. And the latter can be absolutely critical, especially in dogs with stronger working instinct and drive. Because if you do not select, in advance, what your dog's substitute working target is going to be (of which more in a moment), they will simply choose one instead for themselves - and it could be anything from traffic and trains, to cyclists, joggers, birds, water, dust or leaves. Anything in fact that suitably satisfies the working/chasing instincts in the dog.

And once your dog’s instincts have escaped in this way on to any manner of less desirable targets, and the dog gets some ongoing mental reward for fixating on them and chasing them, you may find it ever harder to get this behaviour back under your control.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TARGET FOR THE INSTINCT
In our illustration here, for example, we see a young Border collie who has been immediately transfixed by pigeons moving in front of her. All it would take for her to then become ever more obsessed with stalking and chasing them would be for her to be allowed to do it a number of times and find this highly exciting and addictive. So before she can do this, she is immediately distracted back to her more ‘acceptable’ working target - i.e. a ball - which she is allowed to chase and find highly exciting instead. To the point where the pigeons around her then become quickly forgotten - and will remain so, as long as she has her own specific target to chase and 'work' instead.

This process of training her budding working instinct on to a specific and more acceptable target – i.e. the ball – began in her earliest puppyhood, and well before she was able to pick any other alternative target instead. She is also taught a 'leave it!' command, which tells her that anything else she is about to approach to chase is out of bounds.

The point of using a ball as a substitute ‘working target’, is that this is something you can totally control yourself, unlike so many other moving things your dog may feel compelled to chase instead. It can also be used as a constant reward for other forms of desirable behaviour in your dog – like dropping down and waiting on command, or focusing on you for some time before they can have their ball. Exercises like these also keep your dog in better mental balance, and stop them from becoming too over-excited. As the more excited a collie gets, the more they lose their focus or level of responsiveness to any command you may give them.

If your dog’s working instincts have already escaped on to the ‘wrong things’ it is still possible to redirect them on to a more chosen target like a toy later in life. It may take more time and persistence to wean them off other chase targets they have already selected for themselves, but I have still seen owners achieve this very many times.

BETTER DISCIPLINING THE DOG’S MIND AND ACTIONS
Working instinct is also something you must learn to respect and accept in your collie, as something about their essential make-up they cannot change. You cannot get rid of it or 'train it out' of them, but you can learn how to better understand it and better control it, through a process of better disciplining your dog’s mind and actions.

You will notice that any good shepherd, like our own Cathy Cassie, takes total control of their dog’s actions around a moving working target – i.e. livestock – with appropriate training. In terms of how and when they can approach it, and at what speed, and when they need the dog to stop or come off the livestock and back to them. And any pet collie needs to be trained in the same way with exercises – see end of feature – that keep their chase/working instincts far more under your control.

This way your dog always remains sufficiently fulfilled, physically and mentally, with their own substitute ‘working target’ (toy) but you also maintain sufficient control over anything they do next. For once you are able to totally control your dog’s movements around their substitute working target/favourite chase toy, the same training should allow you the same control should they ever try to chase anything else.

THE MISUSE OF CHASE TOYS
Balls or chase toys, however, should be used as instruments of teaching, reward and keeping the dog in suitable mental balance/focus when working with or responding to you. They should not be so perpetually over-used or abused that your collie becomes excessively over-stimulated and stressed from the excitement of running after them non-stop. Or to the point where they become totally obsessed with the toy and can no longer think straight or take in any other command you may give them.

Nor should collies be allowed to use toy chasing as a substitute for socially engaging with others around them, as this can just further encourage more anti-social patterns of behaviour, or even toy guarding aggression. There is a real art to using a ball as a working target in training, in a way that keeps the dog fulfilled and in optimum mental balance, and their focus more continually on you, while also encouraging more sociable behaviour with others whenever necessary or required.

The more you understand about your dog's working instinct, and learn how to work with it more positively, the better your bond with your dog will get, and the more rewarding your lives together will be. Meanwhile far more on working instinct in the Border collie appears in BOOK ONE of my BREED APART trilogy (blue cover) SECRETS OF THE WORKING MIND and the kind of training and exercises you need to do with your collie to keep their working instinct under optimum control is fully outlined in BOOK TWO (red cover) – ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS AND LEARNING.
All text © Carol Price 2024
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/product-category/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/ In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://www.4mymerles.com/product-category/books/ In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html

01/19/2024

01/04/2024

12/16/2023

TODAY OUR BREED EXPERT Carol Price looks at how you can best get your collie through the festive period

SURVIVING CHRISTMAS WITH YOUR COLLIE
While the festive period may be fun for us, for our dogs it can present a host of potential new stresses and challenges, which we need to be aware of; not just to keep them in a happier and more balanced state of mind, but also to prevent their behaviour
deteriorating more adversely under the pressure of it all.

The first thing to bear in mind is that Christmas social gatherings present a number of factors that put most collies under greater mental pressure; namely, far higher sensory input – in terms of noise and movement levels, and stranger visitors interacting or closely approaching them in less predictable ways – and a massive assault on the dog’s more normal, or peaceful, daily routine. And each dog may have their own individual threshold, when it comes to how much of these newer pressures they can take before it begins to more adversely affect their mental wellbeing or behaviour.

EARLY SIGNS OF RISING PRESSURE
Signs of a dog under greater mental stress include yawning, lip licking or grimacing (pulling the lips back), body tucking or hunching up and tail between the legs, or trying to get into corners, under tables or other places away from guests. You never want to get to a point where a dog has to actually bare their teeth to show how stressed they are. Young, shrill, excitable and highly animated children can also be exceptionally stressful for many dogs.

Often owners will not have seen the mental pressure or anxiety building up more steadily in their dog, or read the subtler body signals, mentioned earlier, their dog gave to convey this. Then when the pressure is finally released in some form of aggression, it comes as a greater shock to them. And the dog always gets blamed for their ‘bad’ behaviour.

SENSORY AND SOCIAL LIMITATIONS
The longer you live with a collie, the more you get to understand their own more individual limitations, when it comes to how they cope with newer people visiting the home, higher noise levels – or other sources of enhanced sensory stimulation – higher social ‘crowding’ or interaction with others and greater assaults on their need for same-ness or the maintenance of more rigid daily routines. And some collies will always cope far better with all these things than others.

Either way, however, you should manage Christmas for your dog according to what they can more individually tolerate, mentally, not according to how you yourself would prefer your dog to behave. I know so many owners who have a desire for their dog to be much more ‘friendly’ or outgoing towards less familiar visitors to the home, or be far less ‘stressy’ about all the sensory mayhem that Christmas can involve in many households, without considering whether their dog actually has the intrinsic mental equipment to deliver either of these things.

PLANNING AHEAD
So prior to Christmas gatherings beginning in your home, the best advice I would give – as with any other sources of potential stress or anxiety - is to set up some more recognised ‘refuge’ zone for your dog; some safe place where they can go whenever they want to. It could be a covered crate, or bed under a table, or any other place where your dog usually chooses to go when they feel anxious or under par or just want to be left alone. And when they go to this place it is vital that no one else disturbs them, until they feel ready to come out again.

If your dog has particular trouble with visitors to the home, you may also want to separate them even further by placing a dog gate between them and their safe place, and the visitors in the rest of your home. Additionally understand that for some collies, higher anxiety or insecurity – i.e. about visitors – can lead to higher reactivity levels, like growling or snapping or lunging out to nip once their mental pressure gets to a certain height.

Each time visitors come, it can also be really helpful to make some immediate positive connection in your dog's mind with their arrival - like some extra tasty treat, or bone or chew, immediately thrown into their safe area, for them to get and enjoy, and forever after associate with the arrival of visitors. Be EXTRA careful however, to only connect such rewards immediately to the ARRIVAL of visitors and not AFTER they have ALREADY shown more nervous or aggressive behaviour towards them, as this just gives more mixed messages, or could result in rewarding/reinforcing the wrong behaviours in your dog.

CHRISTMAS CRACKERS
Another question I would ask is, Christmas crackers – do you really need them, or need to pull them within more direct earshot of your poor dog? I know many collies who are utterly terrified of the noise made by these things. Plus you do not want your dog to make any more lasting negative connection between the fear caused by cracker noise, and the people or scenario – i.e. Christmas gathering – immediately in view when this fearful experience occurred.

MAINTAINING ROUTINE
As well as giving your dog a safe place to retire to, whenever the Christmas pressures get too much, it can also really help to maintain as much as you can of your dog’s nor-mal daily routines. And keep things like walking and feeding times more or less the same for them, regardless of what else is going on. Dogs who have been for a good run before visitors arrive are also clearly going to settle down better somewhere than those who have not. It does not matter if the walks are shorter than normal. Just that they happen at roughly the usual time. Measures like these help preserve a greater sense of security in your dog, when everything else going on around them seems much more worryingly ‘different’ or less usual.

OTHER DANGERS
Over and above potential stress caused by extra noise, commotion, visitors and changes of routine at Christmas, also be aware of the amount of toxic dangers that exist for dogs at this time of year. Everything from fruit cake and mince pies to chocolate, ivy, holly pine Christmas trees and tinsel. For a fuller list of things that can be far more dangerous for your dog to eat at Christmas, see the links below.

https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/health-and-dog-care/health/health-and-care/a-z-of-health-and-care-issues/christmas-foods-what-not-to-give-dogs-at-christmas/
https://www.bluecross.org.uk/advice/dog/christmas-dangers-for-dogs #:~:text=Christmas%20pudding%20and%20mince%20pies,dogs%20whether%20cooked%20or%20uncooked.

The last place you ever want to be over Christmas is at the emergency vets with a very sick dog, so please heed the advice given carefully, as to what they should avoid.

Of course you may be someone who has a collie who loves visitors and Christmas and everything that happens around it, but we cannot assume that all collies will be the same. Once again it is a question of tailoring the festive experience to what individual dogs can cope with, if we want greater peace, happiness and harmony to reign in all collie households this Christmas. Which I would dearly wish for you all.

All text © Carol Price 2023
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/product-category/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/ In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://www.4mymerles.com/product-category/books/ In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.htm

11/28/2023

True for all breeds. It takes training!

LOOKING FOR MORE RELIABLE TRAINING RESPONSES FROM YOUR COLLIE? Today our breed expert looks at what you can do to achieve this

One of the commonest comments I will hear from owners is that their collie will respond well to a command in one setting – i.e. at home or in a training class – but then the dog’s quality of response to the same commands will more rapidly deteriorate elsewhere, and usually in the face of greater distraction. Such as when they are out, and the dog wants to chase something, or goes up to another dog, and then becomes more ‘deaf’ to anything they say to them or ask them to do.

And the reason for this is actually quite simple. It has less to do with what you may view as simple ‘disobedience’. It is down to the reality, instead, that the pull of the distraction your dog is facing is more powerful than the quality of the training they have been given to date; meaning the distraction is always going to win the battle for your dog’s primary attention.

Once you understand this basic reality there is no point wasting energy getting cross or frustrated with your dog, which can often make them even less responsive to you. What you need to do instead is look at ways you can make your training so solid it will always take a higher priority in your dog’s head, wherever you are.

THE TWO STAGES OF LEARNING
The first thing to appreciate is that there are two basic stages to teaching any dog any command or exercise. First comes the point where it is something pretty new to the dog, which the dog has to more consciously learn and remember, via the process of being constantly praised and rewarded. During this earlier phase of learning, your dog’s response to a newer command may be a bit more hit and miss, because they are still having to make a more conscious effort to remember what it means and what they should do when they hear it.

This newer, and more consciously acquired, learning may also not be strong enough to survive some greater distraction a dog suddenly feels compelled to mentally prioritise instead; like feelings of anxiety, stress, fear or excitement, or other people or dogs approaching them, or something that triggers their chase instincts or desire to protect themselves. Because all these things come from the more SUB-CONSCIOUS mind of a dog instead, which is always more powerful than the conscious mind, being the home of all the most primal survival responses in any animal.

Thus the only way to make your dog’s training more reliable or bombproof in any situation is to more thoroughly transfer what they have initially and more consciously learned (stage one) into their sub-conscious minds or thinking instead (stage two), via a process of constant conditioning – the second stage of learning, yet also the most important.

STAGE TWO: THE CONDITIONING PROCESS
My golden rules for making the training of all collies more bombproof in this way are 1) Start as early as possible (though collies can still be taught new things at any age) 2) Repeat and reward a desired action as often as possible to ever further ingrain it in the dog’s mind 3) Once a response has become more reliable, make it even more solid by gradually upping the level of surrounding distraction your dog has to cope with while still responding to your desired command.

So in the case of 1, for instance, I will begin the teaching of exercises like down on the move/mid-chase recall when my pups are only months old. Keeping them on a line I will throw a treat ahead of them, then ask them to drop down before they have got to it (though they will have also been taught a ‘down’ command before this), then immediately praise them and let them get the treat the instant they comply. Then I will do the same with toys, making it all into one fun game, until the process of dropping down on command – whether on or off the line – becomes ever more automatic for them.

Once the puppy goes out, I will also do the same training and games we began at home in all manner of different places, teaching them to get ever better at responding to them, no matter where we are or what else is going on around them, to the point where I feel it has got more totally conditioned into their brains. For if you do not do this, dogs may only respond in more limited contexts where you normally train – i.e. in class or at home – and will not be able to transfer the same learning/responses to any other context you place them in, especially when more strongly distracted by other things.

BETTER RESPONDERS
So ultimately we have to help our dogs become better responders, to our different commands or desires of them, via first better appreciating what may be standing in the way of them doing so. Between any dog and handler/owner there will always be a more constant battle going on between the strength of the training you have given them, and the counter-pull of forces inside the dog’s head compelling them to behave in a different or more instinctive way. And the stronger these compulsions, the stronger and better our own training also has to be.

Meanwhile all aspects of raising and training Border collies appears in the SECOND book (red cover) of my BREED APART trilogy – ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS & LEARNING:
Carol Price collie books: In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/product-category/books-and-dvds/authors/carol-price/ In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and https://www.cleanrun.com/product/border_collies_a_breed_apart_book_1_secrets_of_the_working_mind/index.cfm In Canada from https://www.4mymerles.com/product-category/books/ In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html
All text © Carol Price 2023